Philadelphia has the nation’s fourth-largest Cambodian community, with at least 11,000 and perhaps as many as 20,000 residents. Many of them live and work in South Philly’s Whitman section, where the unofficial Cambodia Town neighborhood centers on Seventh Street between Morris and Ritner.
The corridor hosts a cluster of restaurants, grocery stores and neighborhood businesses that draw locals and visitors seeking authentic Khmer dishes and products, as well as cultural institutions like the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia and the Preah Buddha Rangsey Temple, an ornately decorated Buddhist temple at Sixth and Ritner streets.
Mifflin Square Park, across the street from the temple, is a popular gathering spot that was redesigned and renovated by the Trust for Public Land and the Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition, or SEAMAAC, in 2024…